When work says they will pay for a drinks and food if you go to Soweto and take pics on Vilakazi Street, you get on the minibus and go. Maybe it wasn’t the best time to go with the heatwave and all, but to go back to Soweto and get a free meal…

Vilakazi Street is one of the most famous streets in the world with houses belonging to Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the late former president, Nelson Mandela. You could can actually stand on the corner of either house and see the other house – how crazy is that?

Anyway, 6 of us piled into a van and made the trek from Sandton to Soweto. On the other side we were met by our guide, Nkosi and made the very long walk up the street.

8115 Vilakazi Street

The small house on the corner of Vilakazi & On the outside you can still see bullet holes and fire damage to the bricks of this humble home. ow it only hosts photos and quotes from the Mandela family.

It is truly amazing to think that someone that lived so humbly was president of a country.

Entrance to the (now) museum is R60 per person and that includes a short talk by a guide.

Walking up the hill – again and at the corner of Moemas and Vilakazi, where Hector Pietersen was killed, we turned right.

Along the neat little street with neat little houses graffiti graced a few of the walls.

Hector Pietersen Museum

At Hector Pietersen museum I was quote surprised to see that people were so anti Afrikaans and blaming killings on a language. Do people not realise that a language cannot kill people, it is people that kill people. Yes, apartheid wasn’t right, but blaming a language for an atrocity committed by more than just the Afrikaans speaking population…aikona wena.

The museum is a really important reminder to future generations that atrocities like the killing and disappearance of humans should never be forgotten or repeated.

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Susann is a travel, parenting, beauty and lifestyle blogger in Johannesburg, South Africa.

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